Comments on: Why you should subscribe to BYU Studies http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/ A Mormon Blog Tue, 29 May 2012 01:25:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Joanne http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126845 Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:37:12 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126845 I enjoy BYU from time to time. Among my all-time favorite finds are:
1) A trip to several French cathedrals helped John Welch uncover a lost interpretation of the good samaritan parable. It’s an allegory of the plan of salvation! (1999)
2) Authors Walker and Peterson explore how Brigham Young (sometimes tried to) elevate the saints’ observance of the Word of Wisdom. I found out that the saints carried tea and coffee rations across the plains and that Brigham seemed more concerned about saints buying tobacco and alcohol from gentiles than about them consuming it at all. (2003)

Good stuff.

]]> By: Mark IV http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126844 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:24:55 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126844 Q,

Fools mock, but they shall mourn.

]]> By: Q http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126843 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:14:11 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126843 Keith, your skepticism about the relevancy of fishing to anything is absolutely appropriate. Let me share two anecdotes to show how stirling may be unnaturally interested in the topic:
Last fall at a software conference in Barcelona, I saw him work into a presentation photos and taxonomic details of baccalao, skipjack, and squid. That evening, I went for a stroll along the beach next to the conference center. Among other surprising sites, I saw someone exit the ocean, complete with snorkel gear, hand spear, and a still-wiggling snapper (or was it baccalao?). Turned out to be him.
Three weeks ago I was at the Mormon History conference in the Wyoming desert. At 6 am I went jogging along the path adjacent to Platte River. In addition the muskrat, heron, and jackrabbits I ran across, I saw a fisher standing waist-deep on the other side of the river. I couldn’t tell who it was. Just prior to the 8 am plenary session, I saw Stirling walk in, wet, but not dripping, so I assume he had time to change shoes. I’m tempted to encourage himn to repent, change his ways, and join the ranks of productive citiziens.

]]> By: Stirling http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126842 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:45:48 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126842 Agreed, Mark. Inexcusable oversight!
Speaking of dreams, in addition to W. Woodruff, other early Mormons also repeated dreams about fishing that they applied to their tasks at hand (often, missionary or other church work). Some of these early fishers included Lorenzo Snow, Heber C. Kimball, and Joseph Eckersley (and probably Parley Pratt, but at the moment I can’t remember a specific instance of that).
I, too, dream of “ketching fish” (I think that’s a common phenomenon among fishers), and I’ve found it interesting to compare my fishing dreams, and how they get interpreted, to those of Mormons who lived and fished in the same places (New England, Pennsylvania, Utah, Pacific Islands, Europe), but 100-180 years earlier.

]]> By: Mark IV http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126841 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:34:28 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126841 Stirling, thank you for those references. I knew I had read somewhere that WW was an enthusiastic fisherman, but couldn’t remember where. How cool is it that we have had a president of the church published in Field and Stream?!? My testimony just went up 100%.

I think it is a major failing and oversight of the correlation committee that the WW book intended for priesthood and RS meetings this year doesn’t even mention this aspect of his character. We have stories about dreams where he is inspired to move his carriage away from a tree, and some insignificant details about some manifesto or other, but he repeatedly records in his journal how he “dreams of ketching fish”.

]]> By: Stirling http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126840 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 22:03:00 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126840 Keith, I share your concern that there hasn’t been enough attention paid to the role played in the Mormon experience by fish (as food and symbol), or by the activity of fishing. Oh, wait. That’s not what you said.

In answer to your question, yes. Because fishing is part of the human and Mormon experience (markedly less so in current times), you’ll find such articles in BYU Studies. Here are cites to two fishing articles (copied from the “Fishing” page at wikimormon.org):

Phil Murdock and Fred E. Woods, “’I Dreamed of Ketching Fish’: The Outdoor Life of Wilford Woodruff,” BYU Studies, 37:4 (1997–98)6-47 (related to this, see Tim Slover, “Wilford Woodruff: God’s Fisherman [a play],” Sunstone, Vol. 87, Feb. 1992.)
Dennis Rowley, Fishing on the Kennet: The Victorian Boyhood of James E. Talmage, 1862–1876 , BYU Studies 33:3 (1993),480-520

However, the number of people interested in writing or reading about fishing and Mormon studies is quite small (with Gene’s passing, we may be down to 9). So it may be some time before we get around to completing our unfinished articles, much less the book (“Fishing the Mormon Historic Trail”). After all, we’d rather fish than write about fishing.

]]> By: KeithB http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126839 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 20:12:43 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126839 Does BYU Studies really publish articles about fish? I don’t get the connection with mormonism..

]]> By: Mary http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126838 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:30:50 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126838 Student Review? (#12) That’s a welcome blast from the past (for me, 1986-88). I bemoan its demise (around 2001?). I’m glad to hear Exponent is still alive.

]]> By: Mary http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126837 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:28:27 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126837 I read about half of all these publications. Sometime a lot more, sometimes a little less. If Sacrament meeting were longer, I could get through more.

]]> By: Matt Thurston http://bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/12/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126836 Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:59:39 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/06/why-you-should-subscribe-to-byu-studies/#comment-126836 Question to all: On average, what percent of each issue of the Mormon-related periodicals that you subscribe to do you usually read? Me:

Sunstone: 100%
Journal of Mormon History: 50%
Dialogue: 50%
Ensign: 10%

Wish I had time to read more, and to subscribe to BYU Studies, but I only have so much time to read both LDS and non-LDS related periodicals, books, blogs, and still be a barely respectable father, husband, and employee.

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